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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Silversmith learn about M'Vy as M'Vy tells stories to Tree?

2. Where does Tree say her knowledge about family came from?

3. What does Tree call Miss Pricherd?

4. What is M'Vy's reaction when Tree knows details of Brother Rush's story?

5. What does M'Vy hint is wrong with Dab?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens when Miss Pricherd cleans Dab's room?

2. What does Tree tell M'Vy about Dab's funeral?

3. Describe Tree's relationship with Silversmith.

4. What does Tree learn when she sees Brother Rush after Dab's death?

5. What are Tree's feelings about Dab's sickness?

6. Describe Brother Rush's house, when Brother Rush takes Tree and Dab there.

7. What does M'Vy tell Tree is wrong with Dab?

8. What does M'Vy tell Tree about her brothers and Dab?

9. Describe Dab's admittance into the hospital.

10. How does the narrator describe the relationship between M'Vy and Dab?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Evaluate your own reading of "Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush" -- did you resist it, or were you compelled by the story? What does your reading tell you about yourself and your interests? Use specific examples from the book to describe yourself as a reader.

Essay Topic 2

Compare and contrast "Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush" with "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe", another book in which children are transported into another world through a special portal.

Essay Topic 3

What are the advantages and disadvantages of Virginia Hamilton's writing in dialect? Does it make the story easier or harder to follow? Does it make you feel like the characters are more alive, or more like puppets? Where does the dialect really work? Where does it seem like it doesn't work as well?

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This section contains 727 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample